At the February 27, 2025, meeting of the LAUSD Bond Oversight Committee, committee members and district officials engaged in a mildly confrontational exchange:  Robert Campbell, Vice Chair (L.A. Co. Auditor-Controller’s …

In her history of the 1975 New York City debt crisis, the historian Kim Phillips-Fein describes the municipal budget as an object that “comes to life as the place where opposing views of the city’s future were contested, fought out, and finally decided.” This statement is no less true when it comes to public school district budgets, especially ones the size of Los Angeles Unified. We are currently in the midst of “budget season.” That is, per the education code, LAUSD is required to adopt and submit a budget to the county for approval by July 1. Given that the District is going to be presenting a draft budget for the 2025-26 school year on June 17th, we feel that it is important to clarify what exactly a budget is, and how LAUSD budgets have shaped up historically.

More than any other school district in the state, Los Angeles Unified has been growing its accumulated general fund balance (aka “reserve”) for the last ten years, reaching a record …